VON Europe - Comments on BEREC’s Draft Medium Term Strategy Outlook

7/30/2019 VON Europe - Comments on BERECs Draft Medium Term Strategy Outlook

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VON EuropeComments on the BERECs medium term strategy outlook

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Comments on the BERECs medium term strategy outlook

by VON Europe, January 2012

The Voice on the Net Coalition Europe (VON) welcomes the opportunity to comment on the

BERECs medium term strategy outlook(hereafter the Consultation).

The BERECs medium term strategy outlook recognises the following market evolutions:1

the shift towards wireless and IP; the dramatic increase in data traffic in mobile networks and decrease in SMS traffic; the decline of fixed voice minutes and the rise of mobile voice minutes; and, the fact that content providers and Over-The-Top players challenge the conventional business

models.

In light of these trends, the BEREC remarks that:2

the end-user focus is becoming increasingly important; the existence of competitive markets in itself is not enough; and, transparency and other users rights, such as switching and quality of service, are necessary to

enable end users (including those with disabilities) to derive the most value out of electronic

communication services.

Therefore, VON welcomes the fact that the BEREC envisages to:3

facilitate access to radio spectrum; strike a correct balance between promoting competition, innovation and investment; address issues related to new business models; ensure access to end users; continue to prioritise consumer issues, such as transparency and quality of service,

affordability and accessibility; and,

continue its work on international roaming and net neutrality.

1See the Consultation, p. 3-4.

2See the Consultation, p. 4.

3See the Consultation, p. 4-5.


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Departing from these goals and the BERECs intention to effectively contribute to the development

and better functioning of the internal market for electronic communications,4

the BEREC should

recognise that the communications ecosystem, and the way users experience it is such that services,

content and applications running over the networks over the Internet in particular are at least as

important as the pipes they go through, if not more because they stimulate demand (hence, return

on investment) for the networks in the first place, and are a key contributor to the wider socio-

economic benefits derived from broadband rollout. Focusing exclusively or predominantly on any

one component of that ecosystem risks jeopardizing the development of other critical components.

Especially in an environment with fast-moving vertical and horizontal integrations and the

commercial dynamics exemplified within the converging ecosystem (from hardware equipment, toinfrastructure provision, to content and service provision, etc.) by such phenomena as bundling ( i.e.

triple or quadruple play bundling voice, broadband Internet, TV and mobile), and the purchase of

exclusive content rights, implies very careful monitoring by relevant authorities to avoid harmful and

other undesirable discriminatory practices, which would have a negative impact for innovation,

consumer choice, trade, etc.

Such undesirable practices include, for example, traffic management for commercial motivations

based on the exploitation of a bottleneck, or discrimination between content, applications, and

services of similar nature. The result of such behaviour is a decrease in choice and the switch of

control from the end-user to the access operator, acting as gatekeeper. This behaviour is not just

problematic for customers using these content, applications, and services, but also forms a threat to

the continued survival of the companies creating and offering them (in many cases for free and to

the benefit of customers).

Therefore, VON encourages the BEREC to take into consideration and consider as a priority for its

strategy outlook the need to:

assure full and preferably harmonised utilisation at the national level and across Europe ofradio spectrum and the introduction ofmore licence-exempt spectrum and spectrum trading,

as this is the best approach to increase efficiencies in the management of spectrum.

put in place safeguards to ensure the quality of Internet access, in order to avoid a dirt roadeffect, in parallel to the possibilities for operators to offer managed services. Such dirt road

4See the Consultation, p. 7.


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effects could notably result from network improvements favouring managed services only, or

Internet access becoming overpriced compared to managed services.

oblige State aid beneficiariesto comply with a set of open access requirements not only asregards their infrastructure but also as regards the manner in which their Internet

broadband offerings to end-users are set out on the beneficiaries entire networks to

safeguard that full and open access to the Internet is ensured at both the wholesale and retail

levels.

put in place guarantees for the development and growth of competitive alternatives to mobileinternational roaming in order to ensure consumer choice. It should be noted that, for

example, under the second Roaming Regulation5

Recital 49 asks the Commission to consider

the availability and quality of services which are an alternative to roaming (such as VoIP) and

that Recital 40 recommends that there should be no obstacles to the emergence of

applications or technologies which can be a substitute for, or alternative to, roaming services,

such as WiFi, Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) and Instant Messaging services. Similar

statements should be explicitly kept when introducing the third Roaming Regulation.

assess Art. 8 (4) of the Framework Directive, the objective for NRAs to promote the ability ofend-users to access and distribute information or run applications and services of their choice,

at a network level (i.e. does each access operator allow the end-user its freedom of choice)

rather than at a market level (i.e. can end-users switch operators if they do not get choice with

their current one).

oblige operators to disclose traffic management information in at least two differentformats: on the one hand, an easily understandable end-user fact sheet and on the other, a

comprehensive and detailed technical fact sheet. The latter information is a critical resource

for NRAs, content, application, and service providers, end-users, and consumers in order to

allow them to determine whether operators are engaging in anticompetitive behaviour or

putting in place harmful practices at the level of Internet access services. This can also help

assure that content, application, and service providers offers are optimised to make the best

and most efficient use of the network.

5European Commission. (2009). Regulation (EC) No 544/2009 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 18 June

2009 amending Regulation (EC) No 717/2007 on roaming on public mobile telephone networks within the Community and

Directive 2002/21/EC on a common regulatory framework for electronic communications networks and services (Text with

EEA relevance). Official Journal of the European Union, L 167, 12-23. Retrieved at, http://eur-

lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=OJ:L:2009:167:0012:0023:EN:PDF.
http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=OJ:L:2009:167:0012:0023:EN:PDFhttp://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=OJ:L:2009:167:0012:0023:EN:PDFhttp://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=OJ:L:2009:167:0012:0023:EN:PDFhttp://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=OJ:L:2009:167:0012:0023:EN:PDFhttp://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=OJ:L:2009:167:0012:0023:EN:PDF


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Furthermore, VON would like to encourage the BEREC to also take into account small and medium

enterprises (SMEs) as end-users. In 2008 the enterprise landscape in the European Union (EU)

consisted for 99% out of SMEs, good for almost 21 mln. companies and not less than 90 mln.

employees.6

Moreover, micro enterprises with a staff headcount of less than 10 people and a

maximum annual turnover or balance sheet of 2 mln.7 represent not less than 92% of the total

European SME landscape, or about 19 mln. enterprises and 39 mln. employees.8

VON considers that

business offers are not always adapted for these businesses, and that at the same time these

businesses usually lack the necessary bargaining power.

***

We thank you in advance for taking consideration of these views. Feel free to contact Herman Rucic,

VON Europe, by phone (+32 (0)478 966701) or email ([email protected]) should you need

further information.

*

* *

About the VON Coalition Europe

The Voice on the Net (VON) Coalition Europe was launched in December 2007 by leading Internet

communications and technology companies, on the cutting edge to create an authoritative voice for

the Internet-enabled communications industry. Its current members are iBasis, Google, Microsoft,

Skype, Viber and Voxbone.

The VON Coalition Europe notably focuses on educating and informing policymakers in the European

Union and abroad in order to promote responsible government policies that enable innovation and

the many benefits that Internet voice innovations can deliver.

6Eurostat. (2011). Key Figures on European Business with a special feature on SMEs . Brussels: European Union. p. 11.

Retrieved at,http://epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/cache/ITY_OFFPUB/KS-ET-11-001/EN/KS-ET-11-001-EN.PDF.7

See European Commission. (2005). The New SME Definition: User Guide and Model Declaration. p. 11-14. Retrieved at,

http://ec.europa.eu/enterprise/policies/sme/files/sme_definition/sme_user_guide_en.pdf.8

See MaPEeR SME. (2011). Measures to foster SMEs participation in R&D&I activities and synergies promotion in support

of innovation and SMEs. p. 81. Retrieved at, http://mapeer-sme.eu/en/~/media/MaPEer-

SME/DocumentLibrary/Useful%20general%20documents/EEP-SME_Measures_26092011_publishable.
http://epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/cache/ITY_OFFPUB/KS-ET-11-001/EN/KS-ET-11-001-EN.PDFhttp://epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/cache/ITY_OFFPUB/KS-ET-11-001/EN/KS-ET-11-001-EN.PDFhttp://epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/cache/ITY_OFFPUB/KS-ET-11-001/EN/KS-ET-11-001-EN.PDFhttp://ec.europa.eu/enterprise/policies/sme/files/sme_definition/sme_user_guide_en.pdfhttp://ec.europa.eu/enterprise/policies/sme/files/sme_definition/sme_user_guide_en.pdfhttp://mapeer-sme.eu/en/~/media/MaPEer-SME/DocumentLibrary/Useful%20general%20documents/EEP-SME_Measures_26092011_publishablehttp://mapeer-sme.eu/en/~/media/MaPEer-SME/DocumentLibrary/Useful%20general%20documents/EEP-SME_Measures_26092011_publishablehttp://mapeer-sme.eu/en/~/media/MaPEer-SME/DocumentLibrary/Useful%20general%20documents/EEP-SME_Measures_26092011_publishablehttp://mapeer-sme.eu/en/~/media/MaPEer-SME/DocumentLibrary/Useful%20general%20documents/EEP-SME_Measures_26092011_publishablehttp://mapeer-sme.eu/en/~/media/MaPEer-SME/DocumentLibrary/Useful%20general%20documents/EEP-SME_Measures_26092011_publishablehttp://ec.europa.eu/enterprise/policies/sme/files/sme_definition/sme_user_guide_en.pdfhttp://epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/cache/ITY_OFFPUB/KS-ET-11-001/EN/KS-ET-11-001-EN.PDF

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VON Europe - Comments on BEREC’s Draft Medium Term Strategy Outlook